TAROM Antonov An-24 accident at Cluj Airport

The TAROM Antonov An-24 accident at Cluj Airport occurred on 5 September 1986 on a TAROM domestic scheduled flight. On that day an Antonov An-24RV that had taken off from Bucharest-Otopeni Airport with 50 passengers and five crew members on board touched down hard on the runway of Cluj-Napoca Airport and caught fire. The two flight attendants and all 50 passengers survived the accident, but all three members of the cockpit crew were killed.

Accident sequence

On landing, the captain set the aircraft down nose gear first. The Antonov then bounced several times, during which the nose gear broke and drove through the fuselage into the cockpit. The aircraft then skidded along the runway into a grain field. When it had come to a stop, a fire developed. The flight attendants evacuated all passengers, while the three pilots were trapped in the cockpit. When the flight attendants rushed to the cockpit, it was already enveloped in fire and smoke. Ten minutes after the impact the first officer appeared at the cockpit window and called out to the helpers standing around that his leg was trapped. Finally he managed to free his leg and push himself out of the window. The other two crew members burned to death in the cockpit. The first officer succumbed to his severe burn injuries one day after the accident.